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obverse

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

The side of a coin or medal bearing the principal stamp or design.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhbvurs

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əbˈvɝs

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The side of a coin or medal bearing the principal stamp or design

  2. The heads side of a coin, or the side of a medal or badge that has the principal design.

adjective

  1. Turned or facing toward the observer.

  2. Corresponding; complementary.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The side of a coin or medal bearing the principal stamp or design

Used this way, obverse is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use obverse

  • “The obverse of this issue.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Side / heads

obverse face

Having the base or end next

new obverse

Other combinations

obverse sideobverse dieobverse typeobverse legendobverse reverse

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

noun

Sense: side of a coin

reverseverso

adjective

Sense: turned or facing toward the observer

reverse

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.